We, the undersigned speakers, presenters and participants of the transnational conference “Prussian Colonial Heritage: Sacred Objects and Human Remains in Berlin Museums” on October 14/15, 2017 in the Centre Français de Berlin recognize that communities all over the world have lost a considerable part of their cultural heritage, including even “sensitive materials” - comprising “sacred objects” and “human remains” - by force and fraud in the wake of colonial conquests.

In considering this, we recognize and welcome the fact that the Foundation Prussian Cultural Heritage (SPK) has recently reacted to the mounting criticism by source communities, civil society and investigative journalism and:

- intensified provenance research for objects chosen to be displayed in the Humboldt Forum, allowed for dialogue with source communities and national governments of formerly colonized countries like Nigeria and Tanzania, and repeatedly promised to repatriate objects if they should turn out to have been taken by unlawful means.

- recently started a project of systematic and joint provenance research on human remains from the former colony “German East-Africa” (Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania) and repeatedly promised to repatriate human remains appropriated in the wake of colonialism for racist researches in Berlin.

We hold, however, that these efforts are in no way sufficient to answer the obligations concerning “sensitive materials” as laid down by the ICOM Code of Ethics and by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In expectation of the upcoming centenary of the breakdown of the German colonial empire in 1918/19 and the opening of the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace in 2019 we urge the German government and the SPK to take advantage of this conjuncture by significantly intensifying their efforts to deal responsibly with Berlin’s colonial heritage.

In particular, we ask them to live up until 2019 to the self-declared aim of the Humboldt Forum to become a place of transnational dialogue and global reconciliation by:

1. commencing with joint provenance research projects aimed at repatriation of all human remains from colonized people stored in the basements of the SPK (the collection of the Berliner Anatomisches Institut, Felix von Luschan’s so called S(kull) Collection of the Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde – today the Ethnological Museum - as well as the Rudolf Virchow Collection in possession of the Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte - BGAEU) in close cooperation with the countries and communities of the descendants who must be informed immediately about the whereabouts of their ancestors’ remains. In case there are some human remains that may be traced to a community that was effectively exterminated or that cannot be traced to a particular source community such remains still need to be returned, and shall go to a consensus group of related source communities so they can be treated respectfully.

2. establishing an easily accessible, central research and information center dealing with queries about sensitive materials from colonial times. The center should collect and share information about all collections in and from Germany containing sacred objects and human remains.

3. providing an easily accessible, thorough and truthful description (in German, English, French, Spanish) of the provenance of all sacred and other cultural objects to be displayed in the Humboldt Forum in the reconstructed Berlin Palace itself as well as in the online data base SMB-digital: http://www.smb-digital.de/eMuseumPlus.

4. informing and inviting members of the source communities to discuss publicly the future of sacred and other cultural objects in Berlin collections that were appropriated by force and fraud in the wake of colonialism.

5. initiate the repatriation process of sacred and other cultural objects that have been appropriated by force and fraud in colonized countries in cases where source communities or nation states express their intention to take back what is important for their cultures and was created by their ancestors.

About the Conference

The debate concerning the provenance and future of items acquired in the wake of European colonialism has intensified in recent times, due to the current German project which aims to reconstruct the imperial Berlin Palace and once again display the world’s cultural treasures in the building. Above all this debate concerns translocated “materials of sacred significance” and human remains, items which belong to a category defined by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the UN as “sensitive materials”.

Both of these organizations require the museums to expeditiously “initiate dialogues” with the source communities in order to discuss “the return of cultural property”. However, within the current debate concerning Berlin’s non-European collections the opinions of those who “have lost a significant part of their heritage” are hardly represented at all. Our conference will provide a platform for source community members and experts who should have been consulted “with respect and sensitivity” (ICOM) by the managers of the Humboldt Forum and of the Foundation Prussian Cultural Heritage (SPK) all along.

Program

October 13, 2017

10:00 amPress conferenceby NGO alliance “No Amnesty on Genocide” with OvaHerero and Nama activists on the Federal Court session on Oct 13th related to their Complaint against Germany and on the finding of human remains from Namibian in New York

The conference takes place in the framework of the International Decade for people of African Descent. The General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 68/237 proclaimed the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024), with the theme “People of African Descent: Recognition, Justice and Development.” The Decade is a timely and unique opportunity to underline the important contribution made by people of African descent to our societies and to propose concrete measures to promote equality and to combat discrimination of any kind. It provides a solid framework for the United Nations, Member States, civil society and all other relevant actors to join together with people of African descent and take effective measures for the implementation of the programme of activities in the spirit of recognition, justice and development. The German launch of the decade took place on 7 June 2016 in Berlin. It was officially opened by the United Nations Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Project

The congress is part of our 2016/17 project "Just Listen - Global History from 'below' and Public Dialogue"

The conference is part of a broader Reparation Week related to the 525th anniversary of Columbus' landing in America on October 12 in 1492 which will be celebrated in Spain, Italy and the USA this year. This program points at the necessity of symbolic and material reparations for more than 525 years of European colonialism in all parts of the world: